SPOILER ALERT: Season 10 final ep. & Season 11 story arc
A.N. : A.U. as all four horsemen are alive.
Disclaimer : I don't, but if I did, I would like it :)
For PrawnNetwork, who provided the prompt and requested a
story focused on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
APOCALYPTIC EVENTS
Pestilence's newest creation attracts the attention of a powerful admirer, someone in a position to help him achieve his ambitions and who appreciates
his skills. All his new friend wants, is to set the creation free. An extinction level event that would leave behind a dead planet, once called Earth...
(A.U.)
Chapter 1 - Prologue
-oOo-
Death was, well, Death. He was there when all living things came to their end, guiding and setting them on the way to the next phase, whatever that may be for each individual. When the first life form in all the universes was created, that was also the moment Death came into being. Not surprisingly, being so long practiced meant that he was extremely good at what he did. He consistently carried out his role with an air of calm and graciousness that was much appreciated by those whose time had come to an end. However, Death would openly admit that very, very recently in the eternity of his existence, there had occurred something of a "blip" that he had found to be both an irritation and an intrigue. On the planet named Earth, there were two human's who had to be the most stubborn and contrary of their species. They seemed completely incapable of accepting their own demise, no matter how many times it occurred. These two humans were the only members of all the lower life forms in existence that had the ability to cause Death to feel utterly exasperated, and he was fascinated by them.
-o-
Death would never state that he enjoyed being Death, neither would he say he disliked it, he simply was. It contradicted his whole very ancient being, then, when he found himself not responsible for being there at the end of a life, but instead found himself in the position of being responsible for raising three lives. An unforeseen role which gave him something in common with one of his two stubborn humans, a certain Dean Winchester. Like the eldest of the Winchester brothers, Death too had found himself raising close family, his own much younger brothers, Famine, War and the youngest of them all, Pestilence. Looking back, Death felt he had made mistakes in the way he had raised both Famine and War, possibly giving them too much freedom, placing too much faith in allowing them to make their own mistakes, expecting that they would learn valuable lessons from those errors.
-o-
When War had arrived, it was with a lusty cry and an angry expression. Large for a newborn, he used his chubby hands to fight and rip his way through and into his own existence, the second youngest of the four brothers. Throughout his life, each time he took a risk and failed, each time he misjudged and lost, it merely served to make him more of a fighting force, more deadly. Famine was the next in age to Death and the first of his siblings that he had found himself having to care for and raise. Death had watched mesmerised as, burping and farting, lips pouted while he tried suckling on fresh air and already with a full set of milk teeth, tiny, underweight baby Famine simply ate his way into his existence. As soon as he was able, tiny Famine loved to follow war wherever he went. Famine learnt swiftly that where War had been, there were always opportunities for someone of Famine's skills, and he would hungrily make use of those opportunities to extend and increase his own impacts. It was also embedded deep within Famine's nature that he should constantly seek and strive for a sense of fulfilment. Over the millenia, Famine simply couldn't accept that such a thing would always evade him, leaving him a more bitter personality than his brother, war.
-o-
Both Famine and War had, together, already left Death's care and gone on together to carve their own paths throughout the universe. meaning that Death had to spend a large part of his time tidying up after them. Whilst he found the fact an inconvenience and an additional encumbrance on his own precious time, Death never felt it was necessary to apologise for the actions of either War or Famine, having come to an acceptance that his two siblings were simply being true to their individual natures, and that any apology, should there be cause for one, needed to come directly from his brothers themselves. There had been times, however, that the antics of his two arrogant brothers caused Death to feel very much on a par with the character of Cinderella from the human fairytale, always expected to remain behind to clean up, whilst War and Famine were off having a ball.
-o-
The youngest of all the brothers, Pestilence, (or Pest as only Death was allowed to call him), came as a surprise package. Unexpectedly shooting himself suddenly into existence with one almighty and extremely violent sneeze. Ticker-taping his own arrival by spraying globules of thick lime green snot in all directions, including down the front of the jacket being worn by the stunned figure of Death. Death had gazed down at the glistening droplets decorating his clothing in silence, whilst Famine and War who were lucky enough to witness the arrival of their baby brother from a safe distance away, clung onto one another in their shared helpless laughter. Death eventually stopped staring at his jacket and, with a soft sigh of resignation, had instead stared at the naked, squirming baby with it's twin thick, heavy streamers of green mucous trailing from it's tiny button nose. On one side of the newborn's face, it streaked over the child's top lip and continued from there directly into the child's ear. The second streamer was carelessly draped from it's nose and lying in a straight line across the baby's cheek, before clinging along it's jaw line and culminating in a snot pool under the child's chin. Throughout Death's visual inspection, the child had grinned and gurgled up at him. Death had been completely unaware at the time that the baby was also busily imprinting on him, labelling Death officially and forever after as "Parent". Pestilence had soon turned out to be a uniquely damp child, permanently coated in either snot, vomit, sweat or diarrhoea; and on occasions, all four bodily fluids at once. He still resided at home under Death's care and guidance.
-o-
When Death had first gazed down in fascination at the snot bubble that made an appearance over one of the baby's nostrils, inflating then deflating in sync with the child's breathing; he had made the decision to parent Pest differently to how he did both War and Famine. Death's desire and intent was to be a more positive influence on the newborn as he grew. Death didn't miss the irony of himself wanting some responsibility in the shaping of the adult entity that his youngest sibling would become. And so, through all Pest's childhood, Death had made a point of being around more for the youngest of them than he was for either War or Famine. When he was old enough, Pest was allowed to accompany Death to work, by doing so, Death had hoped to teach Pest a respect for each life he would eventually become involved in.
-o-
There had been some unforeseen consequences however on a few occasions when, believing it would please his substitute father, Pest had sneaked off behind Death's back; most often going on to cause a substantial increase in Death's workload. For example, very recently on Earth, the Bubonic Plague was an event that stood out in Death's memory, if only for the fact that the blame fell on his shoulders when his little brother's surprise gift to him swiftly became known as The Black Death. Death had found that he didn't have the desire to punish Pest. After all, the intention behind it had been motivated by the youngster's simple desire to thank Death for taking care of him. An action which Death still, on the quiet, found very sweet of his baby brother. There was a further reason for Death's difference in raising Pest. It had become very quickly clear that Pest was the brightest and most intelligent of the three of Death's siblings, a facet that would prove to be, as it were, a "Godsend" to little Pest.
-o-
War was War, and every new weapon invented, every so called improvement on the old styles of combat served him well, widening the effects of all wars, whether between two neighbours or any number of planets, to encompass more and greater numbers of victims across wider and wider spectrums. Even to the innocent tiny babe carried within his or her mother's womb as yet unborn and, within an instant, never to be born at all. In all cases, whilst War continued to rage, either Death or the assistants he had been forced by War's activities to employ, would be there to clear away the debris. Even to Death, the numbers lost to the joint efforts of both War and Famine could at times feel overwhelming, and he seemed to have the constant need to dispatch Reapers in greater and greater abundance until, eventually, Death's only recourse in order to ensure he was free to attend when necessary was to limit his own appearances to those whom he felt were very special cases. Even this stipulation meant Death's working weeks were full.
-o-
Whenever the four siblings got together, Death would try to impress on War and Famine that they were not the only ones to need his input. He still had responsibilities in other areas, such as accidents, intentional killings, self inflicted demises, and illness. To be fair, War would often promise to put a hold on his activities, but however sincerely meant, it never lasted. Famine though, he was different, special if you will. He couldn't help himself. He was driven. Driven by his own needs and the eternal search to sate his own emptiness. Death had often wondered in what area his own ability to parent and moments of unintentional neglect may, in part, be guilty of failing to feed and so reduce his bother's hollow feelings? Death truly felt he had done the best that he was able with Famine and War. However, when young Pest appeared, Death decided that it was possible his best could be improved. And so it was with bright little Pestilence that Death developed the closest relationship.
-o-
Pest was a fast learner, and he was adaptable, very adaptable. As he grew and began to use his talent, the inhabitants of worlds who knew nothing of the existence of one another all began to rise to the challenge his unwanted gifts presented, and they began to fight back, and on occasions to combat them, forcing Pestilence time and time again to retreat to the sanctuary of home, where he would create bigger, stronger, more complex adversaries. But the inhabitants of the planets proved they were as adaptable as he. Sometimes, living things developed immunities to Pest's favourite bacterial and viral diseases. Pest would respond by spending happy hours in his extensive laboratory that Death and he built together, mixing and experimenting, producing new strains of his virus' and bacteria. Added to that, he learned how to tweak evolution and to alter DNA, creating stronger, more powerful versions of his other pestilences such as parasites, insects, microscopic invertebrates and so on. He tested out each new strain for effectiveness. One of his more memorable tests on Earth being a plague of locusts of biblical proportions; quite literally. And his intelligence and curiosity didn't simply focus on improving what was, Pest was creative. Death couldn't help but be constantly impressed and, on occasions, downright surprised at the youngest Horseman and his new inventions, such as the double whammy HIV which eventually morphed into AIDs within it's victim. Pest's greatest achievement so far though was such a simple little bug, and yet, even now, not one race throughout the Universe and beyond had ever truly been able to combat it. Death took great pride in young Pest's invention of the common cold.
-o-
And yet, despite his eldest brother's care and devotion, in the end, Pest, like his brothers before him, found he enjoyed being a risk taker. Unfortunately, he could also be gullible. And so it was that when those Winchester boys (Yes them, again) released the Darkness upon the face of the planet Earth, it wasn't long before the Darkness sought out the youngest of the Four Horsemen. With devastating consequences.
-oOo-
Chick xxx